Can Lasik cure the starburst effect of astigmatism?
It depends on what you mean by "astigmatism" and how bad it is.
"Astigmatism"
means the eye is not regular and equal in its focusing ability for every ray of
light entering through the pupil. There is "regular" and what used to be called
"irregular" astigmatism (now called Higher Order Aberrations).
"Regular astigmatism" is what most people mean by the term because that is the
only kind of astigmatism corrected by glasses and contact lenses. This type of
astigmatism does not typically produce starburst, but rather an oval type of
distortion from a point source of light:
"Starburst" is a particular type of aberration where light rays spread out in some (or all) directions from a point source of light. It is a common distortion in vision from irregularities in the cornea (very common from the radial linear scars in RK surgery).
There
is not a hard and fast distinction between such visual aberrations as
starburst, coma, veiling glare, and others. While regular astigmatism can cause
starburst, that is not its typical effect on vision. Only the most technically
advanced types of LASIK (such as wavefront) can correct the irregularities in a
cornea that are causing these aberrations.
